 For Authors: December 20, 2006 Issue [#1444] |
  For Authors
This week: Edited by: phil1861
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| What makes us write? What makes us do this thing then suffer over each and every word and phrase to the point of committing time, money, and ourselves to the marketing, selling, and producing of our work? Whatever form these take we risk ourselves at each step. |
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As I mentioned several months ago I finally wound up a work that took me almost twenty years to complete. True, the final product had gone through a complete revision at least once during this time but the story remained basically the same. Done but not over by far as the many decisions and steps have now to be employed as any work that comes out of draft must. How much work to put into it? How many times to read and re-read it? How many times to re-write each and every sentence for clarity and storyline? Editors and publishers and agents and book bindings and … well, you get the picture.
A work of art or creativity is never completed; it just ends in interesting places. Does a story have a soul? If so no amount of editing and re-writing will change that state of that soul just as we have no control over the nature of our own souls. We can re-write them and begin again in a whole new direction but it isn’t really changing that work is it not? It is beginning a new work in an old mold. If that is what it takes to find the spark and presence of the art in a creation then it is something we ought to do. When I received my first critique back in 1992 from my creative writing teacher I resisted her main point of contention; too many characters. At the time it was written with all of my friends as characters. My friends didn’t mind because everyone wanted to read about everyone else’s character. But for a novel it was too much. But to change direction at that point was more than I wanted to tackle so the project sat unfinished for most of a decade. It would take me another four years to complete it after I began again with the advice of limiting the novel to just four characters. It took some growth and some time for me to come to that point where I was ready to chuck the half finished draft and start all over again. But, that is the sacrifice we are often called upon to make if something is to move to a different level of presentation.
There are some things that I am not willing to compromise on no matter how much critique I receive. For those things I lock them up in a box and do not let prying eyes view nor alter. There are things that have to be done to satisfy the artistic eye no matter the feedback to the contrary or the bucking of convention they have to remain just to make me feel that I have followed my own vision. There are many things that I willingly take critique on because I want to improve upon them and I am my own worst critic.
We all have our thresholds and defining them will save us much grief later on. I have compromised before and regretted it later and been vindicated. For my novel now I must delve into areas of research about the Home School market and develop study guides to accompany it. If you know that a traditional publisher would not look twice at your work remember that the traditional markets are but a fraction of the possibilities out there for publishing a work. But you must know why you are doing it before you can approach an opportunity with all of its struggles and trials that begin the moment you decide you want to have something published. Writing isn’t the hard part; getting something out there is where the real difficulty begins.
If you have published something what did you discover about yourself in the process?
What where the lessons learned from the mistakes?
phil1861
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Since I’ve written They Met at Shiloh with an eye for teaching civil war history to the common reader I’ve found some homeschooling resources on W.com to highlight.
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Question from my last NL
How much does the myth and commercialism affect your own idea of giving thanks?
merlin 
Submitted Comment:
Interesting NL Iwas taught at school the US thanksgiving was all about murdering the natives!
Ps Our harvest festival is pagan vernal equinox Wyvernz
That’s what happens when you allow yourself to be “taught” something but have not connection with the reality of the past. From the very words of the participants themselves can we begin to see the reality as it was then and not in the overly clouded and misrepresented politically correct themes we hear today.
werden 
Submitted Comment:
I enjoyed your rendition of the true meaning of Thanksgiving. I think it is important that people, not only writers, understand their true history. Of course writers need to be as historically accurate as possible so as to not look foolish :)
A firm grounding in history is always needed to be able to write about even the present.
gardengirl
Submitted Comment:
Pookie, thank you for featuring my poem "A Father's Choice" in your newsletter. I've received many kind reviews because of it.
Glad to have given your poem some exposure.
Ŧĥē Beŋ 
Submitted Comment:
Thank you for your historical account of Thanksgiving. You swept away all kinds of smoke and mirrors when you did that.
Mission accomplished!
Elizabeth Anne Ensley
Submitted Comment:
Ha. I'm still in the middle of NaNoWriMo. I won't break the 50k, but at least I managed more words since last year. Slow starts are fine: I've already signed for http://www.nanofimo.org (National Novel Finishing Month). So, let's see how far I can carry the story past Squirrelzilla.
Keep at it.
monty31802
Submitted Comment:
An excellent, very interesting Newsletter.
I am always glad when the author of a Newsletter refers to the poet as an author.
Author carries far to many stereotypes and puffed up images of latte sipping or pretentious personages flinging about their success for all the lowly to see. You write, you authored it.
Ronis brain tumor is gone!
Submitted Comment:
I wanted to thank you for the wonderful piece on on Thanksgiving!!! I am so glad to get this today!
Ronis brain tumor is gone!
Submitted Comment:
Hello there...my only comment is, would you please make the font a little larger or double space or an extra space between paragraphs...I have had trouble reading this one because I could not see words without squinting with my glasses on...I also have a condition where it makes it difficult to read any small print with spacing between the paragraphs or double spacing between lines...
Probably due to my including all of the italic quotes.
schipperke
Submitted Comment:
This is the best newsletter on Thanksgiving I have read. Thank you for taking the time to research and bring us the facts.
akurgal
Submitted Comment:
Excellent newsletter! I often find myself trying to defend historical fact in the face of overwhelming tradition. It is very comforting to have someone beat me to the punch!
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